Fund launched as frustrated Salt Lake City residents fume over flooding fiasco

SALT LAKE CITY — Willi Graham peers down at the stairwell to the basement of the home she rents from a relative in front of her as she describes how bad the flooding got last month, after a broken water main sent water gushing into it.

"The whole basement area was full. It was like 6 feet of water down there," she said, reflecting on it on Monday. "There was a window on the other side where it broke through, and just poured into the house. ... The water pooled right here in this little block."

Her son was in the basement at the time and was able to rescue a pet cat, but not a lizard. Disaster cleanup crews tore out some of the home's first-level carpet and began drying out some of the walls, which were also damaged by the flooding.

The home's furnace was impacted, leaving Graham worried about whether it will work this winter. A new water heater, which cost thousands to install days before the incident, might not be covered.

Her son has slept in a backyard tent since the incident, while she's slept in a recreational vehicle. What's worse, her family doesn't know if any of the damage will be covered. It's a similar concern that more than a dozen others on her block are dealing with right now.

"There's no word how it's going to get fixed, when it's going to get fixed," she told KSL as she offered a tour of the damage. "Everything's still in the air."

These concerns are why residents of Salt Lake City's west side are banding together to help a little more than a dozen homeowners who were displaced or affected by flooding from a broken water main last month.

The Westside Coalition launched a new online crowdfunding effort on Monday, nearly a month after approximately 15 homes were affected in the Poplar Grove neighborhood. The "Westside Flood Relief" fund seeks to offer financial support for anything that insurance may not cover while families work to rebuild.

"We realize that, right now, there are residents who just need more support as they try to get their lives back together," said Justice Morath, a spokesman for Westside Coalition, a community organization that supports Salt Lake City's west side residents and businesses.

The water main break occurred near 500 South and 1100 West in the early hours of Aug. 16. A large, 20-inch pipe burst, sending large amounts of water toward surrounding homes, per the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities officials.

Department officials said they're still investigating the break and additional impacts that it may have caused to its system.

The break happened a few days after the city received heavy rainfall, while Salt Lake City was working on a sewer line project in the area and the Utah Department of Transportation was working on a bridge project at the time. It's unclear if any of those factors contributed to the break or when the investigation may conclude.

UDOT's project included a city request to move an old water line in the neighborhood, but the break was about 50 to 75 feet away from where crews were working, and it "doesn't appear to be related to UDOT's project," said John Gleason, a spokesman for the agency.

Whatever the cause, Salt Lake City Public Utilities said a disaster mitigation team was brought in to help remove water and mold from the homes after the water was shut off. The city has spent most of the past month urging residents to file private claims and also claims with Salt Lake City, through the city's risk management division.

The city is still weighing how it can support affected homeowners while it sorts out what caused the break.

"There are many steps to the recovery process," the department wrote in a statement, in part. "Our risk team went door to door to identify impacted homes, assess the severity of the damage, and provide information. ... Our risk team has also followed up with individuals who were not on the scene, including homeowners who live out of state."

Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster was also brought in to offer resources, city officials added.

However, some residents are still displaced, while many are still facing "extensive damage," according to the neighborhood.

Many outside neighborhoods weren't aware of the full severity of the flooding until recently volunteering in the area, Morath explained. The organization says four homes remain "unlivable," and there has been a feeling that the city hasn't been as responsive as residents want as it sorts out liability.

"We've just gotten a lot of like (unclear) answers about who's potentially responsible," he said. "They can sort that out later, but we're just mostly worried about the families that are unable to stay in their homes and how they can get more immediate support right now."

The Westside Coalition decided it was worth trying something it did last year to help out.

It launched a crowdfunding effort for the Jordan Meadows neighborhood following the city's second-wettest day on record last October. The fund gathered more than $100,000, most of which came from a donation from the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation.

The organization plans to offer affected families short-term relief from the pool that is collected this time around, along with potentially costs that insurance won't cover if there's enough left over, Morath said.

It plans to keep the new effort as long as funding is needed, but there's no timeline for everything to be repaired.

That's what residents like Graham care about the most.

"We don't care who broke it; we just want it fixed," she said.

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